CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former President Bill Clinton is hitting the 2014 campaign trail, and the so-called Big Dog is on Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald's wish list.

FitzGerald, the probable Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio, told the Associated Press for a story this week that Clinton "has an open invitation from me." The story detailed Clinton's emergence as a surrogate for Democrats this year -- a role he played to great effect in 2012 for President Barack Obama.

Clinton, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, was to speak Tuesday at a fundraiser for Alison Lundergan Grimes, a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican leader Mitch McConnell. FitzGerald, the former mayor of Lakewood, is challenging Republican Gov. John Kasich.

In Ohio two years ago, the Obama campaign found Clinton particularly useful in white working-class areas such as Parma, Steubenville and the Mahoning Valley. FitzGerald was among the warm-up speakers at an October 2012 rally for Obama featuring Clinton and rock star Bruce Springsteen at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus.

Clinton also is seen as an asset in southern states such as Georgia, Louisiana and his home state of Arkansas, where he served as governor. Doing such favors for Democrats is seen as a way to bank political goodwill for 2016, when his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, could again seek the party's nomination for president.

No Clinton-FitzGerald events are planned at the moment. But FitzGerald had a chance to spend more time with Clinton last fall when the former president was in Cleveland. The county executive "appreciates the time he's taken to discuss the race ... and offer his advice," FitzGerald campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said Tuesday in an email. Campaign manager Nick Buis said the open invitation extends to Hillary Clinton, too.

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